With the changing emissions requirements for vehicles (e.g., automobiles, buses, trucks, etc.) alternative drives (e.g., fuel cell systems) and/or fuels (e.g., hydrogen, liquid natural gas, propane, etc.) are being implemented on the vehicles. To provide efficient storage of these alternate fuels, the fuels are stored at elevated pressures to densify the gas and provide more of the gas in a given volume of space. To facilitate the storing of these gases at higher elevated pressures, cylindrical or cylindrical-like storage tanks are typically employed.
Today's vehicles are not designed for mounting a high pressure storage tank thereon. That is, today's vehicles typically store their liquid fuel in a zero pressure or slightly pressurized storage tank that is positioned adjacent the undercarriage of the vehicle and is shaped to conform to the available space of the undercarriage. With the ability of the liquid fuel storage tanks to be shaped to conform to the configuration of the undercarriage, the undercarriages have not been designed for efficient or optimal use of high pressure cylindrical storage tanks. Additionally, the vehicles and the undercarriage are not configured to provide the high pressure storage tanks protection from the hazards of driving and in the event of a collision.
Accordingly, it is advantageous to provide a fuel storage system that can be attached to a vehicle and accommodate a high pressure storage tank. It would be advantageous if such a system were to incorporate protection for the high pressure storage tanks to protect against hazards from movement of the vehicle and/or a collision. To facilitate the servicing of the fuel storage system, it would be advantageous if the fuel storage system were easily accessible and could remain mounted to the vehicle during the servicing operation. Additionally, to facilitate the assembly of these vehicles it is advantageous to provide a fuel storage system that can be attached to the vehicle as a modular unit.